Love Notes For Betty: A Eulogy

I find it daunting and sobering to stand before you on this heart-wrenching occasion. So many of you have known Betty Carter over the years, have admired her work, have played music with her, learned from her, enjoyed her lovely smile of approval or suffered her wrath. Her physical presence was so powerful. How strange it is to speak of her now, knowing that her physical presence is forever lost, and her spirit is set free. I stand before you a thoroughly secular man, ill-placed alongside one of America's most famous pulpits, lacking concepts and vocabulary to articulate the deep mysteries of the human spirit. I hope that we may all find solace today in a shared musical devotion where the sacred and the secular meet.

We gather here today to mourn the passing, honor the memory, and celebrate the life of Betty Carter, born Lillie Mae Jones, sixty-nine years ago in Detroit. Betty was a passionate and powerful woman, a perfectionist, independent, stubborn, and uncompromising, an artist who cultivated truth and beauty with equal ardor, a committed teacher, and a unique voice, subtle, supple, inexhaustibly resourceful, redolent of life's pain, bemusement, and joy. Her corporeal presence has left us now, her body refined by a final purifying flame, down to a fine ash, that fundamental dust, our common alpha and omega, proving that she really was mortal, as we all are. Listening to her sing, I was sometimes not sure. Such is the gift of great art. It offers us a vision of human possibility not yet realized in ourselves.

I learned of Betty's death when I read the obituary in Monday's New York Times. I was astonished, incredulous, unprepared to grasp the mortality of a woman I had known so many years, who seemed to me, if not ageless, certainly timeless. I cannot believe that I will never see another of her intense, unpredictable, achingly beautiful performances, with Betty resplendently decked out in one of her stylish, gorgeous outfits, striking poses at odd angles, shaping every word and phrase with unrivalled vocal craftsmanship and focusing her charisma by turns on the audience and on each musician, revealing her unique ability to create moments of deeply intimate communication in the midst of public performance. The force of her personality shrank, chiseled, and expanded the emotional space in a room, even as her voice shaped every word and note she sang. Betty's performances were kaleidoscopic explorations of thought and feeling, and our world is deeply impoverished by her passing.

I know how much I will miss her music making, her mischievous smile, and her ravishing laughter. I know that all of you join me in extending sympathy and fellowship toward Betty's sons, Kagle and Myles Redding, to other members of the family, and to Ora Harris, Betty's manager and friend, who has for years looked personally and professionally after this willful artist, who deferred to nobody. Betty always knew exactly how she wanted things done, and she was not shy in making her wishes known. Those who lived closest to her from day to day, sharing her passions, inspirations, hopes, fears, and pleasures, will feel most acutely her absence from their lives. I hope that they will find comfort in the love and admiration that we all share for Betty Carter and attest with our presence here today.

My personal acquaintance with Betty began fifteen years ago when I first invited her to perform at Williams College. From the outset I was deeply impressed by the intense passion and enormous intelligence that she focused on everything she did, from casual conversation to pre-concert sound checks to the performance on stage. She was a vibrant personality, and she was also acutely attentive and alert. The quality and prominence of her intelligence set her apart from other singers. I don't mean that she was necessarily smarter than other singers...